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It is the morning of the London preview of Cardiac Arrest, and John MacUre, the writer of this six part drama for prime time television, is fielding questions from journalists. MacUre (not his real name) is a senior house officer in medicine who was commissioned to write the series after replying to an advertisement placed by the producers in the BMJ. His story of junior doctors in the NHS differs from other hospital dramas in being frighteningly realistic.

Cardiac Arrest is set in a large city hospital run by inexperienced, chronically tired, and often callous young doctors who frequently make mistakes and seem cavalier in their eagerness to help patients meet their maker.

Andrew, the new and convincingly clueless house officer, is seen rewriting piles of …

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